Well screen



July 7, 1936. E. E. JoHNsoN WELL SCREEN Original Filed July l2, 1930 2Sheets-Sheet 1 July 7, 1936. E. EfJoHNsoN WELL S CREEN Original FiledJuly 12, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 E 53;" By/mz; o

Patented July 7, i936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WELL SCREEN Edward E.Johnson, St. Paul, Minn., assigner to Edward E. Johnson, Incorporated,St. Paul,

Minn., a. corporation Application July 12, 1930, Serial No. 467,527Renewed November 29, 1935 oil Wells.

The results of my invention are accomplished by providing a cage oflongitudinal wires or rods, preferably of rust-resisting material, andto windupon said rods a continuous wire also preferably ofrust-resisting material, winding said wire in a helix with suitablespacing between adjacent coils and to spot weld the wire to each of therods forming the cage at each crossing,

'stood that many other types of mechanism might be used or that theprocess may be practiced by manual means independent of any speciiicmechanism.

The claims forl the invention of the machine here shown will be made ina separate application hereinafter to be led.

In the drawings,-

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a machine for carrying out myprocess. Fig. 2 is a transverse part sectional view on lines 2-2 of Fig.l. Fig. 3- is a sectional enlarged view of electrical contact piecesengaging the longitudinal wires or rods to effect circuit contact forthe welding operation. Fig. 4 is an elevation view of a portion of ascreen member made in accordance with my process with some parts insection and broken away. Figs. 5 and 6 are perspective views of twodifferent types of wires which may be employed. Fig. 7 is an enlargedsectional view taken transversely across the wires and through one ofthe rods showing the manner in which the rods and wires are madeintegral.

The longitudinal rods I6 are carriedV through apertures II in a head I2bolted to a ring I3 secured toa rotatable shell or tubular support 85carried in a bearing I4 of a suitable frame member. Secured to the headI2 are pairs of lugs I5, I6 lbetween which are fingers I1 pivoted to thelugs by means of the pivot bolts I8 but restrained from dropping down byengagement of their at surfaces with the face of plate I2. As shown indetail in Figs. 1 and 3, the ngers I1 have pivotally connected at thesides thereof through bolts I9 lugs or nuts 20 carrying spring membersZI which forcibly engage contact pieces 22 each formed withcorrespondingly positioned semi-circular grooves for embracing thelongitudinal wires or rods I0 which are to be used as the longitudinalmembers to form my well screen. The contact pieces 22 are suspended bymeans of flexible members 24 pivotally secured to the fingers I1 byother bolts 25, as clearly shown in Fig. 1. The rods I0 after passingthrough the contact pieces 22 pass over a circular anvil 23 to a secondor clamping head 26, which is provided with apertures 21 for receivingthe ends of the rods l0. By means of set-bolts 28, the rods Ill areclamped to the second head 26. The anvil head 23 is carried upon a bolthead.46, being insulated therefrom by a bushing 41 and secured to rotatewith head I2 by means of a nut 48 threaded on the end of said boltmember 46. As clearly shown in Fig. 2, -the head 23 is provided withtransverse grooves 29 of a depth a little less than the diameter of therods I0 and equally spaced about the head 23. The grooves 29 are inalinement with the bores 21 in the head piece 26 and are of a depthslightly less than the diameter of the rods Il) so that when said rodsare secured by set-screws 28 to the head 21 they will be held at thebottoms of the grooves 29.

The head piece 26 is carried by a hub 30 which is revolubly mounted upona pin 3|, the head 26 and hub 30 being insulated from the pin 3l bymeans of an insulating bushing 32. The pin 3l is fast on the end of ashaft 33 having a bearing in a carriage 34 mounted upon a bracket 35which is supported by the rollers 36 which run along any suitable way31, the shaft 33 being held from turning in the bearing 34 by means of aset-bolt 38. The shaft 33 has a threaded portion 39 which is as long asthe length of the screen to be formed, preferably around sixteen feetlong. The threaded portion of this shaft is engaged by an internalthread on a rotatable nut 49 having a bearing 4I in frame member 42 andbeing provided with a driving gear 43. The nut 40 is split as at 44 witha bolt 45 for clamping it with the desired degree of firmness upon thethreaded portion 39 of the rod 33.

It will be understood that the guide head I2 and parts attached thereto,including the contact-pieces 22 and the anvil head 23, is removablysecured to the bearing ring I3, and other heads with parts positionedfor receiving rods for other diameters of screen are interchangeablewith the head I2 shown. It is also true that the securing head 26 isinterchangeable with heads corresponding for different diameters ofscreens.

the parts hereinbefore described, including the head I2, anvil 23 andhead 26, are rotated at a desired rate of speed. At the same time,through gear 43, the drive nut 49 is correspondingly rotated whereby thecage of rods I9 will be given a longitudinal movement simultaneouslywith the aforesaid rotating movement, such that a wire 50 of any desiredsize and cross-sectional shape will be caused to coil itself about thecage of rods helically with the several coils spaced from one another auniform distance which is predetermined for any particular type ofscreen to be manufactured by the pitch of the coasting screw threads andthe rate of revolution of the feed nut 49.

Adapted to ride upon the wire 59 is a welding contact disc 5I having itsshaft 52 mounted to rotate ina hub 53 supported by a pivot arm 54, whicharm is mounted on a frame piece not shown and indicated has pivoted at55. The welding disc 5I is provided with a welding edge or face 56 of asuitable shape to engage sharply the wire 59 beneath it, and the weightof the welding disc and associated parts is considerable, so that saiddisc is pressed upon the wire with is connected with the contact bearingring 84,

and another contact wire 58 is connected with l 59, and -when electricalcurrent is passed to the y to be put in circuit'by a circuit closingpiece 61 carried onone arm 68 of a, rocking lever pivotedl transformersaid wires 51 and 58 will form a circuit which passes current throughthe rods I9 and the wire 59 at its .crossing point of said rods andthrough the welding disc back to the transformer. f Y w Means foreffecting constant periodical closing of the circuit are as follows:Incoming current 69 andoutgoing current 6I go through the contactorrelayY shown diagrammatically atj 92. 'I'hese wires are continuedrespectively at IBI and 64 to the contact pieces 65 and 66. These piecesare spaced a suitable distanceand adapted at 69 and having its other arm19 pressed by a spring 15 against the face of a cam disc 1I havingthereon a cam member 12. The caml disc is driven from the gear 49through a pinion 19 and rotates on a bushing 1,4. The lengthof timeduring which the current will be applied may be adjusted by lmeans ofthe width of the cam member 12, and in practice will be just suiiicientto V,producethe most effective welding operation. It is valso true thatthe cam disc. 1I,

like other interchangeable parts hereinbefore described, will be made sothat it will be available either directly in its actual size or throughintermediate gearing so that it will' effect closing of the circuit anumber of times equal jto the number of rods I9 employed in anyparticular diameter of screen,.and rotation of cam disc 1I a suflicientdegree of force. A contact wire 51 'present time is made and sold undername Everdur. This alloy is composed approxby gear 49 will always be ata speed just sumcient to cause the cam 12 toengage the cam end of thelever 19 and rock the same to bring the piece 61 into circuit closingposition at the moment when the welding disc 5I rolling upon the 5 wire59 is passing over one'of the rods I9. This results in greater `flowingthrough the crossing point of said rod and wire, and, because of poorconductivity of the wire 59 and rod. I9, that will Y generate`suiiicient heat at that point because lo of welding action between thewire 59 and therod I9.

v Not only does the weight of the welding disc siderable degree oi'force so that when wire and rod soften becauseof the action of theelectrical current veach will be forced appreciably into the other andthe welding action will integrally together. f

The nature of this welding action `is clearly shown in Figs. 4 and 7. Atthe moment of welding, the metal of both the rod I9 and wire 59 at thecrossing point willnot onlyY soften suiliciently so that the parts willsink one into the other,but at the point of crossing there will becomplete ow of metal, effecting a perfect weld` ing union so that therod and wire will in fact become integrally united. Fig. 7 showsclearlyv how the wire sinks into the rod and the rod into the wire, andFig. 4, in the sectional part, shows that rods and wires have becomeintegrally I have discovered that this process can be best practicedwhere both Vrods and'wire arey of material which is non-corrosive fromwater or inin- Y eral oil or such gases or liquids-as will o becontacted with in any deep wells for water or oil.Y Furthermore, themetal of rods and 'wire should not havev such great velectricalconductivity as not to produce welding heat Vwhen current ispassedthrough them. I have discovered that rods and wire are highlyeffective inthe practicel of my process when formed of an alloy ofcopper, silicon and manganese. One such alloy commercially available inquantity at the the trade imately of 96 per cent copper, 3 per centsilicon and l per cent manganese, and has proved effective in thepractice of my process, and-while I do not wish to be restricted to ametal of exact composition of' Everdur, I have discovered that it can beused in connection with my processmosteectivelmandlwishtoclaimthatdis-60 covery as part of my invention. Y

The machine herein described willY work effectively and satisfactorilyto perform the process and produce the well .screen herein described andclaimed, but I do not wish tovrestrict myself in any way to theparticular machine illustrated and described, as other machinesmaterially different in structure' and mode of operation from the onehere described can be developed to effectively operate in the practiceof my 70 process, and quite obviously the process itself and the screenresulting froin its practice' canrbe practiced and evolved -by handmanipulation.

. Theadvantages of my invention will be quite apparent. A screen isprovided with the least unite them f possible weight of material whereinlongitudinal and circumferential strands of material are integrallyunited at every crossing point, and wherein the helically-wound strandsof wire are everywhere spaced a uniform distance one from the other, andwherein the continuous helical slot formed by the spacing between Vsaidcoils of wire is practically unobstructed in its ow capacity from theoutside to the inside of the screen. The Wires may be round, as shown inFig. 6, or, preferably, of romboidal shape, as shown at 'I6 in Fig. 5.When of romboidalshape the spaces between the slots will widen from theoutside toward the inside so that the slight blocking ofthe continuousslots by the welding into the rods IG will still leave maximum flowinwardly for the entire helical area of the whole uninterrupted slotfrom the beginning to the end throughout the length of the screen. l

I claim:

l. A well screen consisting of a multiplicity of longitudinal rodspositioned to outline a cylinder, and a helix of wire on said rods, saidWire having a plane-topped surface turned outwardly and held in planesparallel with the axis of said cylinder, said wire and rods being mergedand fused together at all crossing points and sunk one within the otherthe same predetermined distance so that the top surfaces of all of thehelical coils form a substantially uniform cylindrical outer surface ofthe screen.

2. A well screen consisting of a multiplicity of longitudinal rodspositioned to outline a cylinder, and a helix of wire on said rods, saidwire having a plane-surfaced top wall and inwardlyconverging side wallswith said top surface turned outwardly, all the surfaces of said coilsfalling in a common cylindrical surface, and being held closely anduniformly spaced to form a continuous helical drainage slot of uniformwidth, said wire and all the coils thereof being metallically integratedwith and fused into the rods at every crossing point thereof.

3. A well screen consisting of a multiplicity of longitudinal rodspositioned to outline a cylinder, and a helix of wire on said rods, thecoils of said helix being everywhere equally spaced, said wire and rodsbeing merged and fused together at all crossing points and sunk onewithin the other the same predetermined distances so that the topsurfaces of all of the helical coils lie in a cylindrical plane parallelwith the axis of said cylinder. i

4. A well screen consisting of a multiplicity of longitudinal rodspositioned to outline a cylinder, and a helix of Wire on said rods, thecoils of said helix being equally spaced throughout, said Wire having aplane top surface turned outwardly and held in planes parallel with theaxis of said cylinder, said wire and rods being merged and fusedtogether at all crossing points and sunk one within the other the samepredetermined distances so that the top surfaces of all of the helicalcoils form a substantially uniform cylindrical outer surface of thescreen.

5. A well screen consisting of a multiplicity of longitudinal rodspositioned to outline a cylinder, and a helix of wire on said rods, thecoils of said helix being everywhere equally spaced to l form acontinuous helical slot of uniform width throughout its length, saidwire and rods being merged and fused together at all crossing points andsunk one -Within the other thev same predetermined distance so thenarrowest portions of the coils of said helical slot all lie in acylindrical plane parallel with the axis of said cylinder.

EDWARD E. JOHNSON.

